Susan Ayers Walker
Managing Director

Susan Ayers Walker, a leading edge boomer, is the founder of the SmartSilvers Alliance. For the past three decades, she has been involved with implementing strategies leading to successful business partnerships and technology developments in emerging and high tech systems companies. Susan chaired for the past several years the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab (aka VLAB), a premiere technology forum located in Silicon Valley. Susan is currently the technology writer for AARP Online. Ms. Walker’s inspiration for SmartSilvers developed from the many years of caring for her aging parents and intimately understanding the issues that confront care giving and the challenges ahead for the boomer and subsequent generations.

Ms. Walker earned her BS in Electrical Engineering at Northeastern and her Masters in Computer Science at Rutgers University. Contact Susan at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Michael Sarfatti, P.E.
Managing Director

Michael has nearly 30 years experience in a variety of industries, including petrochemical, financial services, and information technology, holding positions in engineering, training, marketing/sales, business development and executive management, co-founding three companies involving software development and web-focused infrastructure technology. Michael also has extensive volunteer experience in a variety of professional, alumni, and social organizations. Since 1988, he has been an officer and director of the MIT Club of Northern California, a non-profit corporation, holding a variety of executive positions, including that of president, as well as serving as the regional representative to the MIT Alumni Association. Michael was also a co-founder and the first president/chair of the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Bay Area (dba MIT/Stanford Venture Lab, aka VLAB), currently serving on the organization’s advisory board.

Michael is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning Bachelors and Masters degrees in Mechanical Engineering, and is a Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer (California). Contact Michael at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Gloria H. Cavanaugh
(Strategic Advisor)

Gloria Cavanaugh recently retired as President and CEO of the San Francisco based American Society on Aging (ASA) (http://www.asaging.org), the largest professional association in the field of aging, for 31 years and is currently serving as a consultant/advisor to ASA's Board of Directors. Ms. Cavanaugh came to ASA in 1975 when the association was still the Western Gerontological Society. WGS, established in 1954, had existed for its first twenty years as an organization run entirely by volunteer leadership.

Since 1975, Ms. Cavanaugh has led WGS from being a regional association to a national organization with over 6,000 members in every state in the union, Canada and a handful of other countries as well. It is currently the largest professional association in the field of aging. Under her direction, ASA has achieved a reputation as a premier source of education, training and information in aging, offering dozens of conferences and training programs, including training via the Internet. ASA's publications, including the quarterly journal Generations, its bimonthly newspaper Aging Today, and quarterly newsletters for eight constituent units, are highly regarded in the field.

Ms. Cavanaugh is a founding member and former Board Chair of the National Alliance for Caregiving, a consortium of national aging and aging-related organizations committed to providing information on family caregiving issues. She has also served on the Board of Generations United and is a member of the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations, the National Coalition on Mental Health and Aging, the Advisory Council of the Coalition for Accelerating Cures & Treatments for Alzheimer's Disease, the National Transitions of Care Coalition, the California Coalition for Caregivers, the Boards of the Jessie F. Richardson Foundation and the Foundation for Osteoporosis Research and Education, the Executive Committee for the "Friends of the NIA", and a Judge for the AARP Best Employers for Workers Over 50 Program. Contact Gloria at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .